Friday, November 30, 2012

PlayGround-LA Dec 10 Topic Announced!

‘Tis the season to be jolly! PlayGround-LA gets into the Holiday
Spirit and continues its monthly staged reading series, Monday Night PlayGround, on December 10 at the Zephyr Theatre with
six original short plays inspired by this month’s topic… HOLIDAY SPIRIT! Los Angeles-based playwrights have until 2pm on Tuesday, December 4
to write and submit scripts inspired by the topic. For submission guidelines,
visit http://playground-la.org/submit.shtml.
The six finalists will be presented as script-in-hand staged readings at 8pm on
December 10. The series continues the second Monday of each month through March
2013. For tickets, subscriptions or for more information, the public can call (323)
992-6766, email info@PlayGround-LA.orgor go online at http://PlayGround-LA.org.

Ten days before the
designated Monday, a topic is announced (the topic for December 10, just
announced, is “HOLIDAY SPIRIT”) and emerging playwrights in the Greater Los
Angeles Area have until 2pm the following Tuesday to submit a short script. A
panel of judges selects six winners, whose entries are cast over the weekend
and then rehearsed with the area’s best professional actors and directors in a
whirlwind ninety minutes each before being performed as script-in-hand staged
readings. Previous topics include “Origin Story” and last month’s “Sea-Change.”

The mission of
PlayGround-LA is to support the development of significant new local voices for
the theatre. More than just a play development program, PlayGround-LA focuses
on the creation of a true theatre community by nurturing the collaborative
process between first-time or early development playwrights, and established
professional actors and directors. With a particular focus on the ten-minute
form, PlayGround creates a microcosm of the greater theatre scene, allowing for
experimentation and risk-taking as well as the honing of style and technique.

PlayGround-LA is the
first regional expansion of the celebrated Bay Area playwright incubator and
theatre community hub, PlayGround(SF). PlayGround was launched in San Francisco
in 1994 by co-founders Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama. In
1996, Kleinmann became PlayGround’s first Artistic Director. Since its
founding, PlayGround has developed and staged more than 650 original ten-minute
plays by 185 Bay Area early-career writers and has commissioned 48 full-length
plays by distinguished PlayGround alumni. In the process of staging those
works, PlayGround has helped to identify some of the leading emerging writers
and, at the same time, has engendered the creation of a true community of
theatre artists, bringing together hundreds of Bay Area actors, directors and
playwrights. For most if not all of the participating writers, PlayGround is
the first professional staging their work has received and serves as their
introduction into the professional theatre community.

PlayGround’s alumni
have gone on to win both local and national honors for their short and
full-length work, including recognition at the Humana Festival, Sundance
Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New York International Fringe
Festival, Aurora Theatre Company’s Global Age Project, and Samuel French
Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, among others. Directors and actors
participating in PlayGround are among some of the most distinguished local
theatre professionals, regularly working on leading Bay Area stages such as
A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, San Jose Rep, and California Shakespeare
Theater, among others.